MEDIA RELEASE 25 JAN 2017

The National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA) is again questioning the policies of the Department of Immigration and that of the Minister after fresh reports of yet further discrimination against people from our culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities living with disabilities.

Suresh Rajan NEDA President said, “this current example of a family facing deportation based on the disability of a child is offensive and unacceptable; it further demonstrates that this Government has little concern for those people that have chosen Australia as a place to live; choosing to discriminate against them based on their disability”.

“It is disgraceful that so close to Australia day, a day when we celebrate all that is good about being Australian and the diversity of this wonderful country, that we would discriminate against a family based solely on the disability of a child” stated Dwayne Cranfield, NEDA CEO.

SBS news reports that Sumaya Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi teenager who has lived in Sydney for eight years, is facing deportation and could be expelled from Australia as soon as Friday of this week. 16-year-old Sumaya has been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. She only knows Australia as her home.

Sumaya’s parents are both medical practitioners working in the community, with their employer considering them to be valuable assets to the Australian community. Sumaya has the support of her family and the wider community; she attends a “special needs school”, and her parents have been pushing the case that the costs of her disability are minimal and will be met by her family.

Assistant Immigration Minister Alex Hawke declined to intervene in the case and has stated that the minister is not compelled to intervene and that he is not obligated to defend his decision.

NEDA has in the past advocated for families in similar circumstances and notes that a number of these rulings have been overturned. We call on the Assistant Minister to show compassion and do the decent thing in allowing Sumaya to stay in Australia.

“Again we see people being devalued based on the discrimination of disability. They are being reduced to a mathematical formula with regard to cost and burden. People are much more than numbers on a page” said NEDA President Suresh Rajan. NEDA calls on Minister Dutton to overturn this callous decision., For further information follow the link below and sign up to the Change.org campaign.